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The Randomness of Life…and Religion!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The Randomness of Life…and Religion!

Due to some random coincidences, you were created by your parents. It could have easily happened that no child or a different child had been created at that time, but it was you! Wherever you are born/grew up is also random! Sure, there might be logical or explainable conditions that influenced it, but in the bigger picture it was a coincidence and that’s why I would call “random”.

Depending where you grew up, you might or might not celebrate Christmas and even if you celebrate Christmas, depending on where you (or your parents) grew up, you might or might not believe that there is a Santa Claus.

I never knew about Santa Claus until I was at least 15 years of age and he never brought me any presents. Instead it was the Christchild (Christkindel) that brought the presents! Like most of you I celebrate the start of the new year on 01 January and the next year is the 2016th in my world. But if you are Chinese or Russian or many other nationalities, then the year starts on a completely different day or has a different number. How random!

They are all relatively harmless randomnesses, but think about this:

Due to coincidences both of my parents are catholic and as a consequence of them, I also became a catholic. Neither me not my parents decided to chose one religion over another because we thought it is “better” or “righter”, no, it was total randomness. If I had been born to Indian parents, I might be Hindu or if I had been born to Arab parents, I probably would be a Muslim.

So with that in mind, it is a total coincidence what religion you belong to (if you still “belong” to the religion of your parents and haven’t changed it on the way). Yet, people of some religions feel superior or “righter” when they compare themselves to people of another religion. We even judge other human beings based on such a random coincidence? For example: “Christian good? Muslim bad?”

For 2016, we should all become more aware of the randomness in life and base our judgement on acts/deeds/decisions that a person takes, not on the coincidental religion of their parents or grandparents!

Odd, Other, Society

Ireland and Christmas Markets – It can’t be THAT difficult!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Ireland and Christmas Markets – It can’t be THAT difficult!

In Germany and Austria and a number of other European countries nearly every little village has some sort of Christmas market and if the place has more than maybe 40k inhabitants, then they often have a very impressive market. And oddly the Christmas Market in a 40,000 people city is MUCH better than any markets in the 1.5 mio city of Dublin. So what is the problem? Why can’t anybody get it hacked in Ireland despite years of trying and trying?

I have my own theories and they might be wrong, but what do you think about this:

I get the impression that in Germany and Austria etc the markets are firstly for the visitors, secondly for the traders and only in third place are the organiser’s interest. This probably has to do with the fact that it is usually not an Event Management organisation that is in charge of the market on the continent. In Ireland it is different: The first priority seems to be given to the organiser. Then they will consider briefly the traders but would love to get rid of them and only in third place ranks the audience, the customers.

But Christmas Markets are not and should not seen as a get-rich-quick scheme for organiser. Only when that changes we have a chance to see a proper Christmas Market.

There are a few unfixable problems:

Food and Gluehwein will never be as low priced as outside of Ireland. A cup of Gluehwein seemed outrageously priced at EUR 6 and it is! In Lidl you can get a litre of Gluehwein for that price. But listen to that: In Germany you pay for the same cup ONLY around EUR 2.50, BUT the bottle in Lidl is only EUR 1.50. So if we compare the price per cup with the price of the bottle then we don’t do horribly bad here. Why is the bottle so expensive here? Mainly taxes!! Thanks, deas government for even ruining our Gluehwein addiction. ;-)

And another problem: There seems to be a serious shortage of high quality craft traders in Ireland. At least of Christmas compatible and “sellable” craft!

——————-

But, I hear you saying, are the Christmas markets here really that bad?

About 10 years ago the first market appeared at George’s Dock. At the time a German company was hired to run it and they did a reasonably well job, but it was a new concept and visitors were not as plentiful as they should. After about 5 years (and I am probably not 100% correct with my timings) they were not hired again. Instead an Irish company event management company thought they could do a better job and things started going downhill: The white plastic tents were introduced. They create as much Christmas atmosphere as a Tupperware bowl. That Irish company tried for 2 years and failed. Then another Irish Event Management company got involved and just lasted one year and then there was no market last year at George’s Dock.

That’s when the era of the City Centre Christmas market began! The era lasted one year and was a disaster. In principle it was a very good idea to move the market away from the far-out-the-city IFSC to the centre. But squeezed on the footpath next to Stephen’s Green was a totally wrong place for it. Stephen’s Green would be super, but here shows up another problem: We have NO single suitable space in the City Centre of Dublin that would allow the set up of a Christmas Market Village (not just a string of stalls). Smithfield or the Point Village would be suitable regarding the space, but the location is totally unsuitable.

What else went wrong last year? Well, Christmas Markets need to have a VERY strong food and drink (at least Gluehwein) component to keep people there for a while. Only if people stay there you create atmosphere and you get others to meet them there. But Dublintown (the organisers of last year’s market) decided in their wisdom to give the “catering contract” (totally wrong approach!!) to one single company. So no competition, no variety, no excitement about the food. In addition, Dublintown was worried that the restaurants and traders in the city (who they represent) would suffer from having a too strong food and drink component. And finally: They thought more about marketing the Christmas Market than making it good!

Which brings is to the “I believe (TM) Christmas Tree & Village”. WHAT? Who in their right mind thinks first about trademarking the name of a Christmas Market (on top of that this name “I believe” is totally nonsensical!) and why is it not called Christmas Market, but “Christmas Tree & Village”? So the tree is more relevant than the village? And the village is not really a market? And the “I believe” part is trademarked? Seems like a PR agency ran riot!

The right approach? Create a deadly Christmas Market and you won’t need a fancy or even trademarked name because it speaks for itself! The Nuremberg Christmas Market as one of the most famous and best known in the world, is called “Nürnberger Christkindlesmarkt” (Christchild Market). Nothing fancy, no trademark. No silly PR or marketing. It is an amazing market that speaks for itself WORLDWIDE!

More nonsensical claims at the I believe market? Sure!! What about the “Rockefeller-style” Christmas tree? What is “Rockefeller-style” about the tree? The tree is about half as high as the one at the Rockefeller Centre in New York and the lights in Dublin are as boring as hell. NOTHING that even comes close to the magical Rockefeller Centre tree. Empty promises! Like the claim about the importance this market will have in Europe within 5 years. The claim is that it will be one of the top markets in Europe within 5 years. Why does that matter? By the way: It will have NO importance in the international context and it is not relevant either. If they had focused on doing the best possible Christmas Market instead, it would be a success. But that was seemingly forgotten.

I could go on about the outrageously Après Ski table rent and the continued failure to include the CHQ building more, but I want to mention some of the good things before I will take a chill pill (You might have gathered that I am very passionate about Christmas Markets. Maybe I should offer my services as a Christmas Market consultant? ;-) )

There are definitely some good sides about the Dublin Docklands Christmas Market (trademark whatever you want of this):

For the first time the trader selection seems to be well thought out and comes close to what a Christmas Market should be. The layout of the platform in George’s Dock is good and if the white plastic tents were replaced with proper wooden huts (and there are right and wrong ones!!) it would come closer and closer to a good Christmas Market. More traders are needed and some Christmas music would help, but the decoration is quite pretty.

Sure the food trader (again seemingly in one hand) situation has to get sorted as well, competition and more variety is needed, also for the Gluehwein, but that is a relatively simple change. The opening hours are good and the entertainment programme that was originally promised seemed good as well, unfortunately though, I haven’t found a website where this programme of live entertainment has been listed for people to see. With such a marketing focus event this is a big oversight.

Is the “I believe” Market salvageable? Yes! Fire the marketing company and involve people that have been at least ONCE at a European Christmasmarket and it could be really good in about 3-4 years. However, because the NO 1 interest is still the organiser, I have doubts that it will make enough money to keep them interested that long.

If you read till here: WOW! ;-) This concludes my rant and if you want to share your opinion with me, send it to dublineventguide@gmail.com

Dublin, Odd, , , , , , , , ,

Web Summit vs Irish Government

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Web Summit vs Irish Government

When the Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave’s yearly Internet conference, declared that they will move to Lisbon from 2016 after four successful years in Dublin, the surprise and even shock in Dublin was sizeable. Immediately there were speculations about Lisbon “buying” the event with subsidies or even direct payments to Cosgrave’s company, but after a few days it seemed to die down and there was not that much talk about it anymore.

But maybe there was still a lot of rumbling going on behind the scenes OR it is an intentional marketing “trick” to bring the focus back onto the Web Summit: Suddenly – and to most people unexpectedly – Paddy Cosgrave released the e-mail correspondence between him and a clearly very little interested Nick Reddy, who is the Taoiseach’s Private Secretary, in the run up to the announcement about the move to Lisbon.

I am of the opinion that the Web Summit far outgrew Dublin and that the vast amount of 30,000 participants this November, will bring Dublin to its breakpoint. Neither the RDS, not the traffic and public transport infrastructure in the area is suitable for such a massive event. And with the goals of growing the conference to even 50-60,000 delegates, it was absolutely unavoidable that event would have to move. Dublin is too small for it and Ballsbridge is not the place where you can implement the traffic management plans that the Web Summit management expected.

But it seems that despite this, Paddy Cosgrave didn’t want to move and desperately tried to get the current Irish Government to listen to him and to help him. He repeatedly stresses that he is not looking for money and that instead he is looking for help with Traffic Management, Public Transport, the over pricing by hotels and the WiFi in the RDS. He received no support. Maybe that was because there IS no solution to the problem, but there was not even the attempt to help or to fight to keep the Web Summit. The Taoiseach’s Private Secretary couldn’t have been any less interested.

The most interesting document in this exchange of e-mails however is a mail from 03 September. I strongly recommend that you read it on Page 9. It shows how totally incompetent the Irish Government behaved in comparison to governments from other countries in making good use of this huge event. The ignorance and incompetence is truly shocking!

Sure, we all know that Enda Kenny and his accomplices are not in the premier league when it comes to statesmanship or management skills, but the picture described in this mail from 03 September makes you wonder if they even make it into the lowest league.

Economy, Politics, , , , ,

No Christmas Market at St. Stephen’s Green in 2015?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
No Christmas Market at St. Stephen’s Green in 2015?

Last year Dublintown pushed the Christmas Market at St. Stephen’s Green in a big way and with massive goals.

I quote “Dublin’s first city centre traditional Christmas market expected to attract an additional 600,000 visitors and generate up to EUR 20 million in revenue for Dublin businesses, creating 150 seasonal jobs.” and I remember even reading that Dublin will in a few years be a top Christmas market destination for tourists.

Well, it didn’t happen! Traders were very unhappy with the market, but on top of that it didn’t attract the masses and it certainly wasn’t a Christmas market any Christmas market expert would write home about. So many things were done wrongly! The location was wrong, the stall selection was wrong, the food business was the wrong one. I could go on and on. (Maybe I should provide my services as Christmas Market Consultant! ;-) Dublin needs one!)

Yesterday Dublintown sent out their Press Release regarding Christmas 2015 and there is no word about a Christmas market in it.

The mess that the Luas work causes doesn’t help at or near St. Stephen’s Green , but Dublintown (which is the trader organisation for Dublin) didn’t listen to Samuel Beckett who said “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” The experiment last year failed (to a degree), but it would be better to improve it than to give up, at least Mr Beckett thought so!

Dublin, Dublin City Council, ,

Long Boat Quay: Fire Safety, Dublin City and Incompetence

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Long Boat Quay: Fire Safety, Dublin City and Incompetence

Long Boat Quay is an apartment block on Sir Rogerson’s Quay that was built in 2006 by now-bankrupt builder Bernard McNamara and the building is now in the news because Dublin City has informed the residents that the apartment owners would have to pay EUR 4mio to make the building fire-proof or they will get evicted.

This is not the first time something like that is happening. Priory Hall in North Dublin is currently costing Dublin City 27mio to refurbish it and the residents were evicted there as well.

But how can something like that happen? Why are plans not checked before planning permission is given or before the building is built? Why is a building not checked before people are moving in to make sure that the building meets the specs? If efficient checks were part of the process at the right time, it should never happen that a building is later found inadequate!

Reading articles about Long Boat Quay, you wonder if the situation is not a good bit more complicated than it appears at first: Allegedly Dublin Fire Brigade gave the Ok for the building in 2011, but then seemingly withdrew this Ok in 2013. Could that be? That would be shocking and suddenly a large part of the fault would be with the Dublin Fire Brigade or Dublin City.

It also seems that where suddenly there is such a hurry now, last year things were seen less critical: The Irish Examiner writes that “an internal Dublin Fire Brigade report recommended the serving of a fire notice on Longboat Quay in May of last year”. So more than a year nothing happened and the building was not seen as dangerous, but now it is so urgent that the residents need to move out by 01 November?

The Irish Examiner article lists some of the defects that the Dublin Fire Brigade found, but when an RTE programme had a consultant engineer visit the place, he listed completely different issues. The engineer said here that the building had been fitted with a fire detection and warning system designed to “suit a suburban semi-detached house, not an apartment in a complex in the centre of Dublin”. And that “most of the doors in each apartment looked fire-resistant but had no fire or smoke seals” and he was “particularly concerned” about the fact that there is no door between the kitchen and living areas.

RTE’s engineer obviously has different eyes or had a different focus than the Dublin Fire Brigade, but if the engineer RTE got is right, then I better quickly look for a tent or a bridge to sleep under, because the apartment I live in is then definitely not safe: One single smoke alarm per apartment; no automatic smoke vents in the public area; no fire seals at apartment doors and the door to the kitchen has never been closed. My eviction notice must be in the post! And what about apartments where kitchen and dining room are one?

Are there maybe different standards applied? Or are the experts checking these newer apartments the type of Health&Safety nuts that get palpitations when someone uses a bread knife or lights a candle with an OPEN FLAME. *shock horror*

There is incompetence somewhere, but can we be certain that we have identified the contributor with the highest incompetence yet?

Very odd!!

Dublin, Dublin City Council, , , , ,
 
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